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To get students to work independently it's a process that we have to teach them.
If we teach them at the beginning of the year, then the kids are able to work
better throughout the year.
It's important to teach kids to work independently so that when you are
trying to pull small groups either for RTI or targeted instruction or for your
designated ELD time, your students are working at their tables,
you're not having to monitor the rest of the class.
What's going to happen is that I'm going to show you what we're going to do.
And then we're going to go to our tables - thank you so much Soriah for looking at Mrs.
Klein.
And you're going to show Mrs. Klein how well you can work all by yourself without
Mrs. Klein. I'll give you the directions.
I'm gonna stand back here at the table.
I'm going to be just like this.
I'm gonna stand here...
I'm gonna have my paper and I'm going to take notes.
I will go and I will actually stand at a back table.
I'll just watch the students and I tell them, I'm watching you.
We are practicing working independently right now, you can't come and talk to me.
And I'll stand, I'll take notes on a piece of paper and I just watch the students.
Then after a certain amount of minutes, I will stop the class and I'll read off, oh
these are all the great things that I saw you doing. This is what we need to work on
and practice.
I want to tell you what I saw because oh wow did I see some amazing things.
I'm going to tell you everything I saw that was so awesome.
I saw students working.
I saw students focusing.
You were focused on your assignment. You were putting effort into your assignment.
Wow. Excellent job.
I saw more than once, over and over and over, I saw students helping each other.
That's what I'm looking for in Mrs. Klein's class. I'm looking for you helping each other.
It is very critical and important to teach the students exactly what you want
them to do, and where to get the activities or where to get the work from,
or when you are done, what are the expectations like.
If you are done, where to take it and from there where to bring it back.
Because remember these are little ones and they don't realize and they don't know
how to do things. So that's why we need to teach them.
Okay. Oh no, no, no
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Some of the things the kids can do independently even in the second week
is like tracing their letters, counting. Another activity they can do is puzzles.
At the beginning when I'm having my students first learn how to work independently,
I start with very simple skills worksheets. Tracing lines, cutting lines, really maybe
starting to trace their alphabet. Basic, very basic skills they can do on their own.
At the beginning we want to buy them in, we want to make it fun.
And at the same time you're teaching them but it's a more fun way and the kids buy into it.
Uh oh.
It’s not just busy work, it's actual academic work according to the standards,
the kinder standards.
This sound is 'g' spelling G.
Do you agree?
And Adam's going to say I agree.
I agree.
And then he's going to give me the play dough.
And I'm going to take it and I'm going to form my letter.
I'm going to take the play dough and I'm going to form the letter G
with my play dough.
There are may dos and must dos. The must dos are activities or worksheets that I
provide to the kids that they have to do with whatever lesson we're learning currently.
Like for this week. The may dos are activities of previous lessons or review
and are more fun activities so they-so they can be learning and at the same time
having fun.
If you finish this early...
I want you to turn your paper over...
take your pencil back out...
and write the alphabet.
Where can you find the alphabet?
I think the key to teaching the students to work independently is explicitly
teaching each step.
Taking the time, it takes a lot of time to actually teach this.
What is the first letter in cat?
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